WE WILL SURELY BE FREE

I wonder what my response would be if I heard Jesus tell me what He told all the disciples: “Garris, you will desert me.” Even thinking about those words hits me in the pit of my soul. I know that whether in thought, word, or deed, I am capable of doing just that....

TIMES CHANGE

When I started in pastoral ministry many years ago, most of us wore jackets and ties to preach on Sunday morning. Some even wore suits. Recently, I looked at some old pictures of me from the early 1980s, and by the fashion standards of the day, I looked just fine....
STRIKING THE MARK

STRIKING THE MARK

As I was rummaging through a storage drawer, I found an old patch from my days as a cop. The patch was a recognition gift for the participants on our pistol team at the CHP Combat Match in Sacramento in 1975. That event was over 50 years ago.  It wasn’t by...

INTERFERING WITH HELL

Our lives, our words, and actions should interfere with hell’s agenda. Yet, all the trappings of religion are roadblocks to experiencing or demonstrating God’s power. It is easy to hide behind the prison bars of religion. We can meet for Bible study, prayer meeting,...

MERE MORTALS

No matter how great some leaders are, they can’t save us. They are just mortals who fail, fall, and one day will die. Our help can come only from the Lord. Only those who hope in Him experience what the Psalmist wrote about some 3,400 years ago. Despite anything...

CREATED BY LOVE

We have a saying in our home: “We are created in love, by Love, for love.” Each one of us was formed by the hands of our Creator. He is the protector of the most vulnerable among us, and no one is more vulnerable than a baby in a mother’s womb.  Recently, the...